Machine Safety Resource Center

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Controls engineers need a variety of information on machine-safety topics.

Machine safety has become an even more important machine design concern as it must provide responsible protection for operators and technicians in a manner that keeps the machines running to the fullest degree possible with intelligent use of light curtains, interlock switches, safety relays, safety modules, programmable safety controllers, and other essential machine safety devices to monitor, prevent, and react to machine upsets.

Timely news, back-to-basics primers, feature articles, technical white papers and descriptions of the latest products all provide valuable insights that can be used in designing and building machine controls.

Fatal Injury Causes Reevaluation of Shop Safety Standards
Washington State's FACE Program Issues Recommendations to Protect Operators After CNC Machining Accident

Machine Safety Risk Assessment
Software and Online Tools to Help You Better Understand EN ISO 13849-1's Calculations

Machine Safety Pays Its Way
ABB Jokab Safety Reports Five Common Prejudices Machine Builders Must Confront

Coming Soon: Toys for Embedded Automation
MIT Technology Review's 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2013 Include Additive Manufacturing and Rethink Robotics' Baxter

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White Papers: In Depth Research

Stay Ahead of Today's Cyber Threats
Author: Honeywell
Posted: 04/05/2013
In an age where ubiquitous flash drives can become precision-guided munitions and a serious security breach is a single, misguided decision away, the concept of "defense in-depth" — employing multiple layers of both physical and cybersecurity measures — has become a prerequisite for maintaining operations. This white paper teaches readers how to protect against cyber threats.

Assembled vs. Overmolded Cordsets
Author: Turck
Posted: 03/05/2013
Connectivity serves as a cornerstone for industrial automation environments, delivering continuous production, data acquisition and communication throughout the enterprise. With the need to monitor, control and communicate with more devices, such as sensors, safety devices and PLCs in a vast range of applications, connectivity solutions must be able to withstand harsher environments to satisfy the current demands for constant production visibility and control.

Cordsets provide the foundation for this connectivity, and to meet today's application requirements, cordsets must be able to adapt to difficult environments and challenging applications. Assembled cordsets are a common connectivity solution, however, in-the-field assembly makes them vulnerable to performance deficiencies, such as mis-wiring and moisture ingress, which can impact the operation of the entire application.

To overcome these challenges, cordsets have progressed to include overmolded options. This improves the integrity of the connection by eliminating the need to assemble connectors and the associated errors that occur with assembled solutions. Overmolding can improve the durability of the cordset, as well as reduce the total cost of ownership by improving uptime and decreasing labor and maintenance, improving overall performance for an enhanced application accuracy and efficiency.

This white paper will discuss the differences between assembled and overmolded cordsets, offering a comparison of the technologies and providing a detailed description of the advantages offered with overmolded cordsets.

Implementing Foundation Fieldbus H1 Networks in Hazardous Areas
Author: MooreHawk
Posted: 01/22/2013
Many engineers today find themselves questioning which bus technology to implement in their facility. As if that topic isn't difficult enough to resolve, the subject is further complication by implementing your chosen bus in a hazardous area. This classification alone adds a layer of complexity to the design and implementation of your control system. If you choose to implement networks such as Foundation fieldbus in your control system, the task may seem overwhelming. We were challenged with that task when we decided to implement Foundation fieldbus at Hoehinger Ingelheim Chemical. The purpose of this white paper is to provide some insight into the process for safety implementing Foundation fieldbus in a classified area of you facility.

Remote Emergency Shutdown Device Improves Safety and Performance at Oil Production Platform
Author: Jim McConahay, P.E., senior field applications engineer, Moore Industries and Richard Conway, facility engineer, ENI Petroleum
Posted: 11/08/2012
Updated government regulations created a need for a major international oil and gas company to install a direct, real-time communications link at a platform located off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

ENI Petroleum is an Italian multinational oil and gas company with around 78,400 employees at sites in 77 countries. ENI operates in the oil and gas, electricity generation and sales, petrochemicals, oil field services construction and engineering industries. It has oil and natural gas production of almost two million barrels per day, with exploration and production efforts at sites throughout North American, Africa and Asia.

One of these production locations is an oil well platform called the "Devil's Tower" that is located just off the coast of Louisiana in the Mississippi Canyon region of the Gulf of Mexico. The platform rises 5,610 ft. above the sea bed. Until 2010, it was the deepest production truss spar in the world. Drill ships perform periodic operations within close proximity to subsea pipelines that transport oil and gas to and from the production platform.

In this white paper, you will learn how a new data concentrator system allowed the control room and drill ships to communicate at a distance of more than 100 km, providing security in case of an incident while avoiding costly shutdowns.

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